Well, so much for my plan to review this chapter weekly. I read it all at once and put it into practice and the stuff in my house is shrinking! I am decluttering like crazy! Now, on to the material presented in August. (Remember I skipped July and moved straight to August's material mostly because my blogging in August is going to be very slim due to baby's arrival.)
Habit of the month: Write it down. Write down in your financial journal one things you did that day toward reaching your financial goals. I didn't do this.
Tool of the month: Fantasy Stock Picks. Making stock picks is my husband's department. I am leaving that to him and because he's not reading this book with me I did not use this tool this month.
Week 1: Look for ways to downsize. What is downsize? "Downsizing is letting go of items that are draining you financially, emotionally, or physically." (page 145) Essentially downsizing equals freedom. I have created a large amount of freedom for our family this month. I have gotten rid of hundreds of items from our home! I am working with my friend to get rid of a minimum 20 items a day from our homes. I've had success for over a week now. Before we started this mission, I'd removed a lot of other stuff as well.
Somethings that Regina and Russell suggest getting rid of in their book are big ticket items - cars, large screen TVs, boats, excess clothing and jewelry. Should you downsize your home? This would not be a good idea for us. Our family is growing. We can afford the home we live in. And we are in the middle of some major renovations which would make it hard to sell currently. Let go of status items: that new car, that boat, that beautiful furniture you can't afford. Remember to negotiate. Can you use public transportation or car pool so that you don't need / have so many personal vehicles? These are all ways that we can have some freedom. As I read through this chapter, I didn't see a lot of big ticket items that we could get rid of; we just don't have any, but we have lots of little stuff that is eating away our space and our sanity. That leads me to week two.
Week 2: Clear the Clutter, Room by Room. I have not yet started clearing the clutter room by room. This last week I have been focusing on our main living spaces - living room, office, dining room, homeschool area and porch. Things are getting pretty slim and I'm struggling to find things. Last week I focused on the clothing in our home. The children had way too many items; I removed over 30 items from each of two children! One friend commented that when he arrived he expected to see some naked children as I'd gotten rid of so much clothing in the last week (he gathered this information from my Facebook statuses). We had quite a chuckle. I didn't get rid of that many items!!! We just have that much stuff! I do want to move on to decluttering room by room, but I to not think that is going to be possible before our new baby's arrival. Until I am back up on my feet again, I will just get rid of 20 things a day from wherever I happen to be working that day. I will be putting a book mark on this week to come back to at a better time for me!
I love how Regina encourages us to reward ourselves after such a week of hard work. Decluttering is really hard work, and not just physically. Mentally and emotionally this work can be very draining.
Week 3: Hold a Yard Sale. I don't hold yard sales. I find that they are too much work. I would way sooner donate the items to someone else who is holding a garage sale to raise money for something or to our local second hand store or to someone in need. I feel as if I have been given this stuff to bless others. Yes, if I needed the money, I could sell many items in our home, but most of the stuff in our home was given to us anyway. I just don't feel right selling it. I have found many ways of blessing others with our excess. I share items to give away on Facebook, by word of mouth, by taking them to the second hand store, by putting a "FREE" sign on them at the end of our laneway.
However, if you are so inclined to have a yard sale, Regina Leeds can lead you through a step by step process to get you from beginning to end in an organized and useful manner. I've never thought of a yard sale in quite the manner as she has laid it out. It looks like a major enterprise when you look at the number of steps (quite easy steps) involved to make a yard sale profitable.
Week 4: Should You Refinance your home. This is something J and I need to consider in the next year or so. We have been living in this home for over 3 years now. We have not been paying any extra on our mortgage, but we got a really good mortgage and a great deal on the house when we bought it. Now that I have more information (from this book and from Dave Ramsey's material) I want to really look at our mortgage with open eyes, mind and heart. I want to get us to the end of our mortgage as quickly as possible. Our biggest (and very close to only) debt left is our mortgage! This is very exciting! Regina and Russell offer some great advice and direction on this topic. Other topics covered are second mortgages, home equity loans and HELOCs (not sure if this is also a Canadian thing as well, though).
Another great month of advice and learning from Regina Leeds and Russell Wilde! Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge in an easy to read and understand manner.
Striving to learn and live God's purposes,
No comments:
Post a Comment